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Engineers Week set to inspire Ireland’s future engineers

Engineers Week set to inspire Ireland’s future engineers

06 February 2015 at 15:00

Engineers Week, the national campaign to highlight the possibilities a career in engineering can offer to students, kicks off this Sunday, February 8. During the week, themed ‘Engineering is for Everyone’, hundreds of events will be taking place around the country to inspire the next generation of engineers.

According to the Engineering Perspectives 2013 report, the ratio of men to women in engineering is 9:1. In an effort to achieve more gender balance, Engineers Ireland is placing an emphasis on highlighting engineering as a profession suited to women and men equally. Along with many others, the ‘I WISH’ campaign in Cork, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ursuline College in Sligo and St Marys College in Derry will host major events to inspire change and promote engineering as a career for women. Regina Moran, Chartered Engineer, CEO of Fujitsu Ireland and President of Engineers Ireland will be visiting schools to talk about opportunities for women in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Speaking to an auditorium of engineering and technology students at an Engineers Week careers event at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), Moran points out that there are other challenges, and opportunities, for engineering and none more so than the convergence between all forms of engineering and technology. “You cannot design a bridge without technology, and you cannot design a smart phone without engineering”, she explains. “It’s an exciting time to be an engineer as technology and engineering impacts upon our lives in ways we couldn’t have imagined 10 years ago. In 2013, 10 billion devices were connected to the internet. We expect this to reach 50 billion by 2020. The Internet of Things, our hyper-connected world and big data are just some of the trends that will impact on engineering and will affect how we as engineers come together to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges. If we are to leverage all this potential, we will need many more highly skilled engineers, both men and women.”

Over 1,000 volunteer engineers will be visiting schools nationwide to help students understand what engineering is all about. Local authorities, libraries, academia and industry will open their doors to provide an insight into the diversity of engineering in Ireland and demonstrate the way in which engineering and technology is all around us.

John Power, Chartered Engineer, Director General of Engineers Ireland underlined the importance of the week to ensure Ireland produces well-qualified engineers in the future. “Ireland needs more engineers to remain competitive on a global scale and to develop the country’s resources, infrastructure and growing industries.

“Engineering is for everyone; that is the message we need parents, teachers and students to hear. A quality inherent to all engineers is that of curiosity, to solve problems and challenge the status quo. With over 70 types of engineering and 20 types of common engineering disciplines there is a something for all interest and talents, from aerospace to agricultural, electrical to environmental, civil to chemical and more. I encourage as many people as possible to attend the events and explore the engineering around us.”

Engineers Week is coordinated on a national basis by Engineers Ireland as part of the school’s outreach programme STEPS, which is a strategic partner of Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) Discover Programme.

Engineers Week will run from the February 8 - 14 with activities taking place nationwide and the full list of events can be found on EngineersWeek.ie.

ENDS

Caption:

Picture shows engineering enthusiast Luke Joyce (4) blows the propeller on the single-degree-of freedom-walking machine at Trinity College Dublin announcing Engineers Week, the national campaign to inspire the next generation of engineers, which kicks off this Sunday, February 8. During the week, themed ‘Engineering is for Everyone’, hundreds of events will be taking place around the country to highlight the possibilities a career in engineering can offer to all students. Local authorities, libraries, academia and industry will open their doors to host activities that provide an insight into the diversity of engineering in Ireland today and over 1,000 volunteer engineers will be visiting schools to help students understand what engineering is all about. Engineers Week will run from the February 8 - 14 with activities taking place nationwide and the full list of events can be found on EngineersWeek.ie.

Pic:Naoise Culhane-no fee

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